The present invention relates generally to personal communication from a variety of locations, and more specifically to a modular integrated communication apparatus.
As portable, or laptop, computers, cellular telephones, and pagers become more commonplace in today""s society, consumers have become increasingly more reliant on the ability to effectively communicate with and receive communication from others via a variety of ways at any time, and at any place. Such communication may be made by cellular telephone, pager, or over a network or the internet using a computer. A variety of communication methods including electronic mail, telephone, paging, and the like, are available for nearly instant communication across large distances. When a person is for some reason away from a location where that person can usually be reached, the person often wishes to be able to not only send but receive normal communications. For example, a businessperson out of the office on business may wish to be able to send and receive messages and other information while away from the office. It has also become increasingly likely that someone wishing to get into contact with a second person who may be away from her usual location, such as on business travel or the like, will wish to resort to contacting the second person via a pager, e-mail, or telephonic communication.
Portable computers, cellular telephones, and personal pagers are all in fairly common use, each filling an aspect of modern communication needs. Many persons carry both a personal pager and a cellular telephone. Many persons when traveling away from their usual location carry a portable computer, cellular telephone, pager, or a combination of the three. Modern communication may require or dictate the use of one or more of the communication devices described above at any time. Each of these devices commonly have separate batteries for supply of power to the individual device. If the devices are used for different amounts of time, some may require recharging sooner, making power management difficult.
Cellular telephones with built in paging are known. However, it is cumbersome to carry a separate personal pager, cellular telephone, and portable computer wherever one goes. Further, to connect to a network or internet service provider (hereinafter xe2x80x9cISPxe2x80x9d) requires some method of connection. It is known to have a portable computer with cellular technology built in to the portable computer.
Various interconnections of modules are disclosed in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,673 discloses a modular communications system in which a cellular telephone may be connected to a personal digital assistant (hereinafter xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d). The PDA in turn may be connected to a keyboard for full text input to the PDA. U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,861 discloses a modular system allowing a pager to be connected to a computer for communications.
Coordination and the avoidance of duplicative technology with respect to communication devices is important to efficient use thereof, and to an economy of space. It may be desirable to have a personal pager, a cellular telephone, and a portable computer, but there are times when only one of the devices is needed or wanted. However, the remaining devices may be needed or wanted shortly thereafter.
There is a need for a better way to obtain the benefits of each of these devices in a more convenient manner. There is a further need for better ways to manage batteries used to power such devices.
The present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing a portable communication apparatus having portable computer, cellular telephone, and personal pager technology, all capable of combined operation in a connected mode not only from the same power supply, but also being capable of independent operation when separated. Although the term cellular telephone is used throughout the specification, it should be understood that as used, the term cellular telephone is defined herein to include other wireless and cordless telephones. Similarly, the term portable computer includes such designations as laptop and notebook computers.
A representative personal computer apparatus embodying the present invention includes a portable computer, a cellular telephone adapted to operatively connect to the portable computer, and a pager adapted to operatively connect to the cellular telephone. The portable computer, the cellular telephone, and the pager each have an independent power supply and are each detachable from the apparatus for individual functionality.
A portable communication apparatus embodied by the present invention has a portable computer, a cellular telephone, and a personal pager which are each separately and independently powered, and are each fully functional on their own without any requirement of assistance from the other devices. The devices of the present invention, however, are also operatively and removably connectable so as to operate under one power supply, which may be provided by the battery of the portable computer, or from an external power supply. When combined in the connected mode, the portable computer, cellular telephone, and personal pager operate as a single unit with the functional capability of all three devices. The cellular telephone may act as the communication line over which a modem in the portable computer connects to a network or other ISP, and the personal pager may be integrated with the cellular telephone and the portable computer to control certain functions of the telephone and the computer, such as alerts, power up or down, and the like.
In connected mode, the portable computer, cellular telephone, and personal pager are coupled to operate from the same power supply, or to operate from their own separate and individual power supplies as desired or selected. Any combination of the three devices could be a sub-unit of the whole, including by way of example but not limitation, the cellular telephone and the portable computer, the personal pager and the cellular telephone, the personal pager and the portable computer, the three devices each standing alone, or the three devices all operating connected together.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the cellular telephone may be connected to the personal computer via a PCMCIA interface on the telephone which engages a PCMCIA slot in the portable computer.
The cellular telephone may include a combination antenna and microphone for hands free operation. When operatively connected to the portable computer, the cellular telephone microphone may be used as a voice input device to the portable computer.
In one embodiment, two digital signal processors (DSPs), a main DSP and a secondary or sub DSP, may be used in the communication apparatus to handle input and output functions of the communication apparatus. These DSPs may be built into or added to the cellular telephone.